For well over 200 years, pistol technology has evolved with improvements to pistol design including various safety features. When possible, the number of parts required for a given function of a pistol are minimized, so when a single part can perform multiple functions in pistol design, such design is preferred. This is particularly helpful when some of those features are related to safety and relate to the firing of a pistol—a function primarily linked with trigger action including a trigger bar.
One common danger with pistols is the process of removing a pistol slide (top portion of the pistol) from a pistol base. When separating these parts of a pistol, it is often necessary for a user to pull the trigger to release a striker in the pistol. This can be particularly dangerous because it can cause the pistol to be inadvertently fired when taking a pistol apart.
Another danger with pistols is the trigger action (i.e., how much force is needed to pull the trigger and fire the pistol). Different pistols have different levels of trigger action so different shooters are accustomed to different levels of trigger action. As such, someone accustomed to a pistol with stronger trigger action might be more likely to accidentally fire a pistol with a very light trigger action. Providing a pistol with different levels of trigger action minimizes this problem while allowing for both a light and stronger trigger action if the user desires to change the trigger action or if a different user prefers a different trigger action.
Virtually all pistols have a locking and unlocking block, pins or other similar devices that help to lock and unlock the barrel. No such devices include springs connected to the locking block, however. The lighter a pistol is, the harder the recoil to the hand of a user. Making a pistol heavier helps address this problem, but it is often advantageous to have a lighter pistol for other reasons. As such, what is needed is a novel way to minimize the recoil of a pistol—particularly for light pistols.
What is needed therefore is a pistol with a trigger bar that performs multiple tasks. What is also needed is a pistol in which a pistol slide can be removed from a pistol base without the need of pulling the trigger of the pistol. Another need is the ability for a single pistol to provide more than one option regarding the strength of the trigger action of the pistol. Another need is a way to soften the recoil in a pistol even when such pistol is a light weight pistol.